Could a change in Oilers management mean a second chance for skilled Swede Linus Omark?

Omark enjoyed some nice chemistry with Detroit Red Wings forwards Henrik Zetterberg and Damien Brunner during the lockout, and managed to carry on as he’d started, eventually leading Switzerland’s top hockey league in points (69) and assists (52) in 48 contests.

It was a good season for Omark, but nothing out of the ordinary; over the past six years he’s shown that he’s a top-flight offensive player, with the indication always being that he could score at the NHL level if given a chance. The following table shows NHL equivalency numbers (courtesy of Gabriel Desjardins) for the league he played the most time in over that period.

The trouble for Omark is that the NHL opportunity is far from certain.

The Oilers own Omark’s rights, but it seems clear that the team is aiming at getting bigger, not smaller, and so despite the fact that Omark is a tenacious player he likely isn’t in the plans. Most teams prefer to employ an “energy” fourth line which is long on bang and crash and short on scoring skill; whether that approach is the right one is debatable (the most effective fourth line in recent Oilers history was the Brodziak, Glencross, Stortini trio, but often forgotten is that Brodziak and Stortini also enjoyed a measure of success with Robert Nilsson when briefly put together as a line) but for a lot of teams that fourth line serves as a place to make up for size/nastiness shortfalls elsewhere in the lineup. Conventional wisdom suggests that the Oilers fall into that category of team.

That leaves open the possibility of a trade or offer sheet (most likely the former), but a similar problem arises. Omark had chemistry with Red Wings players; on the other hand Tom Renney is an assistant coach there and seemed to make his mind made up about Omark in 2011-12. There are teams out there desperate for offence (Nashville and Florida and Phoenix all come to mind), but they would need to be interested enough to make a trade worth the Oilers’ time. Under Steve Tambellini that did not happen; it may be he was not proactive enough or it may simply be that there wasn’t a market (there’s also a midpoint possibility that should not be discounted; there may have been a market but one where the return was not high enough to interest Tambellini).

Omark has scored everywhere he’s played, and consistently made it clear that the NHL is his only goal. He’s done all a player realistically can in Europe; there are teams in the NHL that could use his scoring power, even if it comes in a small package. Omark’s hopes of getting that opportunity now depend on new Oilers’ general manager Craig MacTavish: either that he changes the Oilers’ plans for the player or that he can pull off the trade that Steve Tambellini could not.

We encourage all readers to share their views on our articles and blog posts. We are committed to maintaining a lively but civil forum for discussion, so we ask you to avoid personal attacks, and please keep your comments relevant and respectful. If you encounter a comment that is abusive, click the “X” in the upper right corner of the comment box to report spam or abuse. We are using Facebook commenting. Visit our FAQ page for more information.